


Lost & Found

by coeurastronaute



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, adult kryptonian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2019-08-22 04:06:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16590545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coeurastronaute/pseuds/coeurastronaute
Summary: The Luthors find another Kryptonian when a ship crashes to Earth. Lex is in the stages of initial madness and obsession and his sister is just trying to keep them afloat, but somehow, the scared alien that wakes up, finds a way of interrupting Lena's quiet life.





	1. Chapter 1

On the highway heading out of town, a sleek black car quietly sped through the slick roads and puddles forming from the storm that was due and set to last the week. The driver kept a tight grip on the wheel while the passengers listened to the weather report over the radio. One worked diligently, precise in her calculations and tapping on her tablet, while the other inhabitant of the luxurious car sighed and watched the stream of rain dance along her window.

“I cancelled everything, even the board meeting,” the secretary explained as she tapped a few things into the planner. She didn’t even bother looking up at her boss, but instead silently lamented how terrible her schedule was about to become with an unexpected trip for an undecided amount of time. “They weren’t happy, but the numbers looked good, so it wasn’t a catastrophe. I sent over favorite whiskeys and cigars with your apologies.”

There was only one person coming between Lena Luthor and absolute chaos, and that was Jess the secretary. She took her job seriously, and was rewarded for it perfectly. She also had grown to really enjoy working with her boss; an unexpected consequence that kept her around longer than she expected to last.

With a familiar, almost sad, smile, Lena nodded politely to her assistant.

“Thanks, Jess.”

Quietly they drove toward the private jet that waited to whisk her to an undisclosed research facility that apparently needed her. The rain-soaked city didn’t budge in the night as Lena watched it slide past. There was a weird kind of comfort that existed in the huge, overwhelming city filled with people. Often being lost was a reward, or at least a comfort in being able to not exist. Lena craved the quiet in the noise of the city, with its honking and slushing and humming and sighing.

Lena Luthor hadn’t grown up in this city in particular. She was a child of the world, not really knowing a home. From a young age, her mother advocated joining her father on trips. Four months in Rome, six in Rio, two in Midvale, five in Paris, fifteen in Mumbai, and so on and so forth. They had no need of a home because they could be wherever they wanted. It was beautiful in theory, and lonely in execution.

But she chose this city, and she chose a home because as much as she loved growing up all over the place, she desperately thirsted for a place to never leave. It wasn’t like she had time to actually explore it, but she loved her house, and she loved the potential of it, her company, and what a permanent future might mean. Still, she traveled, but she actually had a couch that she enjoyed and a bed that felt familiar. It was a new kind of life and she was happy with it, contrary to what her assistant often thought.

Plus, it had bridges, and Lena had a thing for bridges.

“I pushed some of your morning meetings as well, since I doubt you’ll be back at a decent hour,” Jess continued to explain. “Or even if you’ll be back tomorrow.”

“For Lex’s birthday, I was thinking of making reservations at that place he likes downtown, but I can’t remember the name.”

“Cure.”

“Yes! That’s it,” she nodded eagerly. “Maybe a nice watch? Do you think that’s impersonal?”

“He likes watches,” Jess shrugged, knowing to just accept when a tangent happened. It was almost hopeless to get her back on track.

“I just haven’t seen him much the past few years, and I wanted to do something nice. A thank-you-for-letting-me-help-with-the-company kind of gift.”

“You could get him a boat.”

The car pulled up to the private hanger as they debated. Long gone was the city, hidden beyond the horizon. Awaiting her was a jet with her last name on the side, and Lena knew to be grateful for it, though for tonight, with the rain and the way the city felt on a night like that, she was vaguely annoyed that her brother called her so urgently.

“He likes watches,” Jess promised. “Get him a new one. You know he likes expensive things, so the more the better.”

“That is true,” she chuckled slightly as the car stopped and a man appeared with an umbrella. “Thank you for messing with the schedule. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“All in a day’s work.”

“And if anyone asks–”

“You are certainly not at a top secret research facility on a private island,” Jess recited without looking up from her tablet.

“Exactly.”

“I’ll have Benjamin check on Albert tonight.”

“He won’t notice I’m not there,” Lena shook her head. “But thank you. Remind me why I have a cat again?”

“You’re a lonely, aging spinster with no personal life.”

“Right, right,” she nodded and smiled fondly at her friend. “Is twenty-seven aging?”

It might have been the only normal part of her day or life, this little needling at each other when they got a chance. Lena enjoyed having someone to bother her.

“You’re not getting any younger, and you refuse to accept the dates and meetings with cute girls I set up for you,” Jess rattled off like a disappointed grandmother.

“Okay, okay, okay, I better go.”

“I’m just saying, would it hurt you to peruse? There was that woman from LTB investors, and then there was Michelle from Micro–”

Her rant was cut short by Lena opening the door and escaping with a wry smile.

The cold and the rain smelled heavenly, and she imagined it all going straight into her lungs. It was a shame she wasn’t at home, able to crack the door and sit on the balcony with a big blanket and a book or those designs her team had been working on. But at least she’d see her brother. That was the only plus side.

“We’re just about ready to take off, Ms. Luthor,” the pilot said as she took her seat. “It might be a little bumpy at first, but should just be about a two hour flight.”

“Thanks, Tom.”

With that she settled into her seat and wondered slightly about what Jess was saying before shaking it from her head and allowing herself to get excited about her brother’s discovery. Whatever it was, had him excited, and he was rarely excited.

* * *

There was an entire city on the island. A town akin to a mining village existed there. Lex Corp employees had access to all of the luxuries of the normal world, completely detached from it and surrounded by tight security. There was a mall, school, houses that came very furnished and much better than anyone could afford elsewhere. There were parks and a fire department and even a nice lake for fishing and boating.

It was a nice place that Lena oddly enjoyed despite the business owner part of her that worried about its practicality, though it led to a lot of their discoveries because everyone who worked there was genuinely happy. In some weird way, by adopting workaholics and the most brilliant minds he could, by creating a relatively easy-going place, Lex created a good life for his employees and their families.

But Lena didn’t get to visit it, nor did she come in that way through the football fields and community centers and hospital, through the main airport and docks. Instead, she entered the even more tightly guarded research lab with three guards flanking her on the east side of the island. She presented her bag and went through the procedure that she often mocked her paranoid brother for putting in place.

Her brother stepped down from the company to do research. Lena was jealous of it, but there had to be a Luthor on the throne, so to speak, and thus she took it, despite the nagging fear and doubt of not being ready. She missed him and she missed the idea of her future, though she couldn’t explain it. After their mother’s death, Lex was a different person, leaving her even more alone. Any excuse to see him felt needed, and he never called.

“You do know that I have things to do running your company, right?” she pretended to be annoyed as she hugged her brother tightly as he met her after the checkpoint.

The lab was pristine and stark. It was a dangerous place, filled with his ideas and obsessions, and Lena knew it, which made him even more unlikely to share or invite her. He was a perfectionist.

“I saw your idea for the new battery core. I liked it,” Lex smiled, hugging her just as tight. “But I think this might change the game before you get a chance.”

“That good huh? Why did I have to trek the whole way down here?”

“This is too big. I am going to need a lot of cover–”

“It better be good. Jess was so mad I had to change my schedule. I blamed it all on you naturally.”

“Naturally,” he chuckled. “You’re not going to be disappointed. This is… Lena, this is everything we’ll need to defend ourselves against the invaders.”

To her credit, Lena bit her lip in consternation. But she should have known this was about his new obsession with the alien that lived in Metropolis. She mentally kicked herself for making the trip on just his excitement alone. Not many knew of his preoccupation, and she liked it that way. It led to lots of DoD contracts and more money for investors, but his almost mania worried his sister.

“I don’t care about your weapons, Lex,” Lena sighed. “I told you, we’re taking the face of the company toward something more… I don’t know… what’s the word– less deadly.”

“This is much more than that.”

“I have a dozen meetings to make up tomorrow–”

“Trust me, Lena,” he swore, placing his hand up for a scan to enter the deepest bowels of the research facility.

Lex Luthor was never one to show his excitement. He was often monotone and rarely gave away much of what he was thinking. There was this curse that he suffered from, that of always being the smartest person in the room, so that he was ten steps ahead of even the brightest mind. The curse warped his mind and made him arrogant unless one could keep up with him. And thus he felt a certain love for his younger sister in only that regard.

The day that Lena walked into his life, she was all of six and her older brother didn’t bat an eye, didn’t even seem to notice anything at all. Fourteen and already on his way to figuring out who he was, he invited her to play chess with him, and let her win, though he’d never admit it. It was often brought up as a point of pride, that he lost to a six year old because she was his sister.

But still, even when proud, he did not beam and he did not embellish. Lex Luthor was rarely emotional at all. It was perhaps that reason alone that Lena found his new interest and excitement and zeal alarming. She worried, mostly though, and she didn’t know how to help or if it was even possible.

Superman scared the hell out of her, too. But Lex took his fear and made it into a weapon in himself. She could see it already. While the world could hope and pray and believe optimistically that Superman was good, Lex took it as an affront and a threat. He would not be left unprepared.

“Was that a mock up of my battery?” Lena asked as they moved down a hall past a few rooms with large windows looking into individual research sections. She would have stopped to really look if he wasn’t walking so quickly and purposefully.

“I told you it was brilliant,” he snorted.

“I want to look at that. I really should visit here more often. Maybe you should try running your company once in awhile.”

“You’re doing a much better job.”

It wasn’t a lie, but Lena knew there were few things, if any, that her brother could do better than her. He was buttering her up because he liked playing with toys in his lab and not getting yelled at by annoying investors.

“I could use a break,” she muttered. “A vacation maybe. Somewhere tropical.”

“You hate the sun.”

“Not the point, I could still–” 

Lena was certain she had more to add to her sentence, and yet when she followed her brother through the last thick door and people wearing hazmat suits, she couldn’t remember any.

“We pulled it out of the Pacific two days ago. It’s definitely Kryptonian,” Lex nodded to himself as she stared at the ship that occupied the hangar. “It landed last month, but it took forever to narrow down where it was. Do you know what we can do?”

The look in his eyes was passion and fear and power, but Lena missed it as she gawked.

Still, Lena couldn’t speak. She knew aliens existed. She usually didn’t have a problem with it, despite her brother’s ideas and beliefs. But suddenly confronted with the very reality and tangible foreignness of an advanced and deadly species was almost terrifying.

The pod or ship was the size of a submarine. Small, not naval-sized, but still, quite large. It was sleek, and the metal was oddly blue and shiny, almost a steel but so shiny it looked slick and wet. And all of it was mesmerizing, the etchings intricately covering it, the technology evident, the size and power. But what really caught Lena’s eye was the person sleeping in it, not even realizing that they were on a different planet.

“Is that–? Are they–? Is she breathing?” she furrowed, leaning impossibly closer to the glass. She placed her hand on it, as if it would help her look.

“For now.”

“What?”

In the hangar, scientists continued to research, take samples, push buttons in the way that scientists are allowed because it’s for science. Lena grew a little worried as her eyes bounced a few times from her brother to the alien in the pod. Utter disbelief overwhelmed her until she couldn’t understand what was actually happening. She’d ridden a plane and not twenty minutes later she was standing beside a man she knew to be her brother, as he discussed advanced warfare and unethical… murder!

“She’s the key to defeating Superman,” Lex sighed happily. “Her biology will be everything we need. The research will be everything Lex Corp needs to stay ahead of competition for the next two hundred years.”

“You can’t… that’s– she’s a living being with feelings and–”

“It’s for the good of the world, Lena,” he disagreed, features becoming sharp. “No one will know, and it is what we need. You saw what the other Kryptonian did to Argo City. And with more and more of these freaks showing up, we need all the help we can get.”

“You have to draw the line at this. It’s unethical! It’s madness!”

“It’s salvation, Lena! How can you be so weak and ob–”

From outside the observation room, the scientists tried not to notice the spat that was forming. From the window, they would have seen both Luthor siblings getting more and more animated, with arms flailing, in Lena’s case as she made her points, to Lexa’s vein pounding in his forehead. They yelled at each other, circling round and round, order the other to understand what they thought. But like two brilliant, stubborn geniuses, it was not moving in either direction.

All at once, Lena was disgusted and afraid of what she’d dismissed as paranoia and nothing more, but to kill something– someONE, that was just insanity.

“Don’t you dare defend that creature!” Lex bellowed.

“How have you become so–”

The pod began to do something, began to hum to itself, unbeknownst to the siblings. Only when the lights clicked on, did Lena pause her argument to catch a glimpse of the hatch opening.

“They are invading our planet and they are going to kill us all,” Lex explained again. “You don’t create anything without a kill switch, you don’t allow enemies to have the better tech, and that is how you survive–”

“Lex…” Lena swallowed.

“The world has always been this way. From swords to bows and arrows to guns to bombs to smart tech to biochemicals and security, we evolve as a species, and we–”

“Lex.”

“What right do they have to appear here? We don’t even know–”

“LEX!” Lena yelped as whatever was asleep woke up and jumped out of the pod, crashing into the cement with a loud crack and a crater forming at the impact.

Everything stopped for a split second that stretched for years. Lena stared at deep brown eyes that looked at her with utter perplexity. Whatever the alien was, she certainly didn’t have the face of a murderer.

“Hit the alarm!” Lex called over his shoulder. Scared and paralyzed, the scientists didn’t move, but stared at the alien. “Subdue it!” he screamed. “It does not escape. Put it down.”

“No! Lex, STOP!” Lena argued, yelling just as loudly.

The flurry of activity made the already terrified alien look around nervously. She braced herself and searched every corner as quickly as possible. Helplessly, Lena tapped on the glass, ordering people to stand down while they ignored her, unable to hear her voice over the activity and thick windows. The alien buckled over, holding her head in her own arms and trying to curl up with an anguished wail, as if she were in pain despite no one touching her yet.

The alarms continued to blare, and the strobe lights flashed all over. Guns were cocked and trained on the doubled over alien who still looked fearful and lost and defeated without ever giving it a go.

“Don’t do this, Lex,” Lena begged. “We could talk to her. We could do so many things. But you’re going to make yourself a murderer!”

“I’ll bear it over the deaths of entire cities,” he said solemnly, not looking at his sister.

The first anchor was fired, the net followed an instant later, eclipsing the creature. When the sparks started to fly, she let out a large and woeful moan and shriek against the pain. It lasted a few seconds before the net was torn apart and tossed to the side.

Lasers shot out of the alien’s eyes as she looked around, causing many to duck and avoid the ray. Lena tossed herself to the ground, tugging her brother with her, as the windows were blown out and glass shattered everywhere atop her.

The gunfire and ricocheting echoed with the yelps of the alien. Faster than imaginable, she ran around while Lex barked orders, jumping through the broken wall and picking up a weapon himself. To Lena, she was just a scared creature.

“Don’t Lex!” she yelped, blood and scratches caking her pale skin.

It didn’t matter. He fired and it didn’t even make the alien flinch. Hair a little dingier and full of smoke from the fires burning, wet from the sprinklers, she cocked her head and looked at the man who tried to shoot her in the head. Words came out of her mouth, though they didn’t make sense at all.

“Lex! Stop!” Lena tried to convince him as he lined up another shot. The alien looked over to her, staring intensely, as if trying to still understand.

In a movement that was unseen, the barrel of the gun was bent as if it were nothing, and Lex was thrown against a wall with a flick of a wrist. Bullets flew around again, and the alien bent over, covering her ears and moaning in pain.

Against the noise, there was nothing Lena could do except watch helplessly. Across the hangar, her brother groaned and pushed himself up. Before he could say anything else, the alien took off, jumping of flying or something. She burst through the roof and escaped.

Guards and scientists and everyone in the area moved frantically, following and thinking they could do anything at all. But Lena knew better. She furrowed and stared at the hole in the ceiling and winced at the glass that was in her skin that made itself known when she moved. Her skin stung with the tiny cuts from moving around in a pool of glass, but no feeling felt stronger than the relief she felt that her brother hadn’t murdered an alien right in front of her.

It was pure chaos and the lab looked as if it’d been blown up. But still, surrounded by all of it, Lena stood and set her jaw. It was her brother’s mess, and therefore it was her responsibility She knew it, yet she didn’t know how to handle it all.

The scientists and researchers frantically ran around, not knowing what to do, but knowing that they had to do something.

“You are becoming a liability, Lex,” Lena sighed as she stared at his bewildered and angry face. “Get it together or get out.”

With that, she turned on her heel and mustered as much dignity as someone who looked like they’d been blown up could look, hair tossed all over, clothes askew, arms, hands, and neck bleeding in little cuts.

“This is my company! I’m saving you all!” He yelled behind her, pride wounded.

“Clean up your mess, or I will,” she warned, cocking and eyebrow and pursing her lips. “And if I catch wind of you doing experiments on aliens, I swear to God, Lex, you’ll be turned over to the authorities. We have to draw a line. We will be on the right side of history.”

“Just get out,” he sighed, disgusted with his family. “You don’t get it. But you will. Hopefully before it’s too late.”

Sick of her night, sick of the day, sick of what she’d just seen, Lena wanted to fight and argue and save her brother. She had the small realization that in a few months or years, she might look back at this exact moment and wish she’d acted differently, but she also had the nagging, gnawing thought that he was already gone.

And so she walked out and back toward her plane.

* * *

The plane ride back was spent in the bathroom, picking glass out of her skin and bandaging what she could with the small medical kit onboard. The drive back to her condo was spent staring at the city and the rain as everything played over and over and over again n her head. From every side, she approached the issue of her brother. She asked herself questions she was afraid to mull in the daylight. But in the rain, in the rain she couldn’t hide from her own morals and fears and responsibilities.

And still, with all of it– with travelling for six hours and nearly being killed by a terrified alien, with watching her brother’s descent and being confronted with the fear of what she might have to do, with fearing the alien and fearing her own questions, with her brain on overload and her body aching– Lena couldn’t imagine sleeping.

Five in the morning and a perfect storm murmuring outside her tall windows, and Lena was wide awake and haunted.

The shower water burned and hit every cut, but it helped to clear her mind. And the soft sweatpants and old shirt she tugged on helped make her feel less like the world was spiraling away from her.

The only thing left, was tea, she decided. As she filled up the kettle, she messaged Jess that she would not be at work the following day, but to have everything sent to her condo. Albert padded across the counter, sitting on the corner to supervise until she rubbed his chin.

“I had a day,” she sighed as she earned a nudge of his forehead into her own. “I think things are going to get hard soon, little man. And I really am becoming a cat lady.”

As a form of agreement, he took his love and hopped away, distracted from real problems.

“Yeah, this is who I’ve become,” Lena nodded to herself.

Outside, the sky got slightly brighter in the way that a rainy day wakes up and only isn’t completely black. The clouds were thick, wool-lined things. If she went to sleep, she could forget everything for a little while. That was her hope.

The kettle clanked as she set it on the stove and debated turning on the television before deciding against it. No news was good news. Instead, she let Albert weave and rub against her calf as she surveyed the city.

Lena’s arms ached, but still she wrapped them around herself as she looked at the city below her. From the penthouse, the rest of the city felt so small, felt tameable. She liked facts, and so she ran through it all again as she avoided her reflection in the door that led out onto the balcony. She got a call, she got on a plane, she saw her brother, she found out that he was possibly a psychotic mad scientist, she nearly got lasered by an alien, and she got on a plane, and she came home, and she took a shower, and she made tea.

“You don’t want to go out there,” she warned the cat as he looked up at her and back at the door, waiting expectantly. “It’s raining and wet, something you are very averse to being.” Big green eyes stared at her.

The kettle began to whistle, and gratefully, Lena sighed, excited to relax and take a sleeping pill, and forget she even existed, at least for six hours; minimum.

With a needy meow, the grey cat waited and pawed at the door.

“Fine,” Lena shrugged, craving a bit of fresh air. “But you’re going to hate it.”

The chill swept in and to his credit, Lena watched Albert consider it before licking a paw, cleaning his face, and shifting so he wasn’t facing the breeze.

“I told you,” she teased as she turned off the stove and poured into her MIT mug.

Despite being deterred, she noticed that he didn’t move like normal. Often, he would climb up onto the chair and gaze out the window when he came inside, though he adored the balcony. Instead, Lena moved back over and watched him watch the balcony.

In the dark and the rain, only the city was evident. But Lena peered out at the peaceful setting, hoping to find some perspective in the enormity of the world. She squinted slightly and really looked outside again until she made out an outline, or so she thought.

Taking a step forward, the figure winced and met her eyes through glass once again.

The mug crashed to the ground a second later.

“Holy fuck,” she gasped.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t until she felt a warm body rubbing against her calf that Lena thought to blink. Closer than back at the lab, she stood still and stared back at the alien from the pod. Even in the dark and the storm, even drenched and oddly afraid, Lena could tell that she was different, that she was noble and good. It was the tilt of her chin and the warmth in her eyes despite the state of the early morning.

With a meow, Albert made Lena jump slightly. It took a good couple breaths for her to remember that her body could move or function.

Slowly, she opened the door, her eyes never leaving the alien’s. Without something between them, it felt insanely intimate, and it felt extremely bare. Lena shivered slightly with the weather.

“How?” Lena tried.

“You did not hurt me.” The voice was tentative and tired, dripping in with the rain.

Soaked to the bone, the alien set her jaw and stared back, as if willing Lena to understand what those words meant, to understand how important her words were at all. She didn’t have many yet, certainly not many that Lena would understand, and so it was heavy, to speak a foreign sound. 

“You can speak?” All she got was a feeble nod. “Come inside? I can help you.” Skeptical and out of options, Lena could see her debating and she understood why. “I won’t hurt you. I swear it. You came here because you know that.”

Without a word, the alien stood a little taller and mustered the last bit of energy she could before tentatively stepping inside. Without the noise of the rain coming down outside after the door was closed, the world was too quiet and so very charged.

Suddenly, Lena had a rogue alien standing in her home. There wasn’t really anything else she could do, and for some reason, she wasn’t particularly afraid. Her mind told her she should be, but nothing clicked and made it feel like she was in danger. No. Instead, she just invited an alien into her home because it looked like a wet, abandoned dog, and she felt bad, and perhaps even guilty.

“I’m going to get a towel and some dry clothes, if that’s okay?” she ventured as they stood there, just the sound of the puddle forming between them.

This time there was another nod of the head. Dark brown curls dripped with the rain. Albert licked at the puddle that formed near the door at the base of the stranger.

“Just stand here. I will be right back, okay?”

Looking over her shoulder as she retreated, Lena shook her head and pinched herself, just to make sure this wasn’t a hallucination. But it wasn’t. There was still a soaking wet alien standing in her penthouse. It was the guilt and those eyes that made Lena offer to help. Mostly the eyes and the face. She swallowed back the thoughts as she dug in her drawers for something.

Somehow, she ended up with the world’s only other Kryptonian in her house while she was certain her brother was hunting like a mad man, and she was helping her. It was like her brain was playing a round behind what her body was doing, which was very different from her normal day.

“I think these will fit, but– Are you okay?”

Doubled over and squeezing her hands over her ears, the alien almost vibrated with a certain speed in her muscles.

“Loud. Loud. Too loud,” she mumbled, looking at Lena helplessly with her hands clasped over her ears tight.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Okay. Okay. I can’t… it’s silent here.”

“Too loud,” she winced again.

“Focus on one sound, okay? Here, can you hear me breathing?” Lena took a deep breath and let it out, as slowly and softly as she could. The alien shook her head and stared back, frightened of herself. “Pick one sound. It will pass. Here. Can you hear this?” Lena took another breath.

Lena wasn’t entirely sure if that was accurate or not, but she sure hoped it would, and for a moment, there was almost relief in the alien’s eyes, or at least hope.

Without a word, Lena stood there and waited for it to pass, taking deep breaths and being as quiet as she could. She wanted to comfort her somehow, but she had no idea where to start, and not even because she was out of her depth with the alien, but more because she wasn’t a naturally calming presence. After a few minutes, she got another weary look and her heart broke at her ineffectuality.

“I have dry clothes. You must be cold.”

“Hungry.”

“You change, and dry. I will find food.” Again, Lena waited anxiously for the alien to agree and understand before she moved. “What do Kryptonians like to ea– Oh God!”

When she made it into the kitchen and turned to ask her question, she was met with a half-naked woman. The alien dried herself, tugging her jumpsuit down so that it rested on her hips with nothing else covered. In the dim light of the room, Lena saw little bits of ink coming up from her hip.

“Holy fuck. You’re naked. Of course you’re naked,” Lena muttered to herself. “Dear goodness You’re just–” she swallowed and shook her head before closing her eyes and turning away, the image seared into her brain already though. “Food. I’ll make you food. I don’t have much.”

Almost with her eyes closed, Lena moved around the kitchen, refusing to look up at the nakedness, and quite in fear of seeing it again. There wasn’t time to think about wanting to see it again. That was a problem for another week.

But keeping her head down proved dangerous, and so deep into thinking and not blushing was Lena, that she didn’t notice the alien standing now in her kitchen, in slightly too tight sweats and an old shirt.

She nearly dropped what was in her hand again when the alien touched her.

“I hurt you.” It was a statement, an observation, but Lena flinched when soft hands held her arm. Worry and guilt laced the Kryptonian’s features as she surveyed the cuts that littered Lena’s skin.

“Not on purpose.”

“I am sorry.”

“Lena. My name is Lena.”

“I am sorry, Lena,” she nodded, unable to look away from the slices on the skin. “Your world is loud and bright, and I–”

“I’m okay,” she promised again. “Let me make you food and we can–”

Her sentence was cut off with the wobbling of the alien. She met her eyes once more before they rolled back and she slumped down, half in Lena’s arms, and half on the ground, completely passed out.

The weight of the body was too much, and helplessly, Lena struggled to stand again. For a solid ten minutes, she fought to lug the alien to the couch, but she really was impossible to wake up, and Lena gave her a pass. To wake up in a foreign world, and one that seemed to have a physiologically effect as well, plus Lex and the welcome wagon. The poor girl had a long, long day; even longer than Lena’s.

One limb at a time almost, Lena tucked the body into the couch and pulled a blanket from the basket to cover her. Instantly, Albert settled himself at the newcomer’s feet, settling on the blanket himself.

Though she felt as if she’d spent plenty of time before staring at the stranger, Lena took this opportunity to learn her features, as if that would tell her all the answers to the questions running through her head. Tentatively, she reached out a hand and felt for a pulse on the sleeping alien’s neck, relieved to find something she imagined meant she was alive.

In an unparalleled move, Lena pushed aside messy curls and let her fingertips trace down to her chin. Her nose was normal, perhaps slightly crooked if you squinted, and her jaw was strong and cut like a square. Lena pressed her hand to the alien’s chest, to see if there was a heartbeat. When she found it, she held her hand there and assured herself that she was making the right decision.

* * *

Even before she was fully conscious, Lena Luthor knew that her body was going to rebel against falling asleep in the chair in her living room instead of her giant, luxurious bed down the hall. Slowly, as she woke, she became more and more aware of this fact until suddenly she remembered the course of her night, and her eyes popped open, forgetting her body’s reluctance to move.

The apartment was still dim. The weather made it impossible to guess a time. The rain still fell outside in a steady rhythm dulled by the thick windows and smothering clouds. The city still murmured and hummed to itself all those stories below. But Lena only saw the empty couch and her heart jumped into her throat.

Worry and fear choked at her as she stood up, nearly tripping over the blanket that she remembered putting on the alien. Disoriented and still oddly exhausted despite the peak of adrenaline, Lena finally allowed her brain to take in the clues of her apartment.

Standing, staring back at her, wide-eyed and startled, the Kryptonian held a bag of crackers, her mouth full of them and slightly slack as she found herself scared by Lena’s sudden movements.

Furrowing, Lena squinted and stared through the singular light of the open refrigerator. It wasn’t a dream.

“How long have I– What time– Who are you?”

With a lot of work, the alien wearing clothes that were at best a size too small for her, tried to swallow. Lena extracted her legs from the blanket pile and moved toward the kitchen while her cat ate crumbs dropped from the messy eater.

Again, the alien tried to speak and failed, her throat and mouth full.

Shaking her head, Lena ran some water and handed a glass to the alien. For a split second, it was almost impossible to believe that this creature could kill her with a blink of her eye or a flick of the wrist. The CEO hadn’t noticed before, but her eyes were light brown, like honey. And when she realized that, she remembered her naked.

“My name is Kara Zor-El of Krypton. Though I believe Krypton is no longer.”

“It exploded,” Lena nodded.

“I have to find my cousin. That is my responsibility.”

“Superman?”

“No,” she furrowed. “Kal. Kal-El of Krypton. He is no man. He is a child.”

Before Lena could argue, she heard the rumbling of an alien’s stomach. She looked at it and then back up at Kara’s eyes.

“How much have you eaten?” Almost guilty, the alien looked around at the mess in the kitchen and shrugged. “It’s too early for this. Go sit down and let me actually make you something.”

“Thank you, Lena Luthor.”

“Just Lena.”

With a nod, Kara sat down and let the cat nudge her chin with his neediness all of a sudden. She rubbed under his chest while Lena went to work at concocting something of substance from the remnants of her raided kitchen.

While she cracked eggs and beat them, she could feel those eyes on her, though she refused to acknowledge or feel anything about it. Instead, she waited for the pan to heat up and put on some toast. With a little bit of effort, she figured she could put together a breakfast, even if it was already lunchtime. She needed something in her stomach to have whatever conversations would come that day. In truth, she needed a nip of vodka, but that seemed inappropriate.

“Why are you helping me?”

“I don’t know.”

“How do you not know why you are doing something?” Kara asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.

Even after passing out, even after waking up on a foreign planet, she looked very alive and happy, and Lena couldn’t shake the warmth.

“It’s a polite way of avoiding a question,” she decided as she poked around the eggs. “But I also don’t have an answer. I saw you and you needed help. That was it.”

“Why did they want to hurt me?”

“There are a lot of things we need to go over,” Lena said. She wanted it to be reassuring, but as it came out, she could see that nothing would ever fix it or make anything easier to understand. “I won’t let anyone hurt you though. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

The promise felt foreign and new in her mouth. Lena wasn’t certain where it came from, but she leaned into it after a second. She wasn’t a maternal or even overly sentimental or caring person, but there was this thing, this ache in the pit of her heart that made words come out. Mostly, she loved the look Kara gave her, sad and hopeful.

“But first I will feed you,” she decided, pulling out a plate and preparing it. “Then we will figure out everything else.”

“There is something happening to my body. Earth has changed it. My mother said this would happen.”

“Our suns. They’re different.”

“How do you know this?”

“My brother has… studied your culture.”

Almost not understanding, the alien nodded before furrowing as she stared at her plate. She took a fork that Lena offered and began to eat. Lena sipped from her coffee cup and watched, as if she’d never seen anyone eat before, and to a degree, she’d never seen anyone eat like that.

It wasn’t that she was a bad cook, but certainly no one in their right mind had ever enjoyed her cooking as much as the alien with a never-ending pit of a stomach.

“Kara, how did you find me?” Lena asked, as she debated how to even start dealing with the plethora of problems about to unfold. “The island is over a thousand miles away. You are apparently just picking up English, and you’re adjusting terribly to the environment. I just… why me? Why here?”

In the matter of a few minutes, a half dozen eggs and six pieces of toast were gone. Chewing on the last one, the alien stared back, as if the question was so simple it didn’t need asked. But Lena looked expectantly, waiting to hear something to make the past twelve hours of her life make sense.

Kara cocked her head and furrowed as she sipped the water again.

“Your heartbeat. I heard it at the– the– at my pod. I have never heard one before. Not without the aid of something. Nothing makes sense to me, Lena. But I could understand your heartbeat and the look you gave me.”

“Jesus Christ, you’re a fucking poet,” Lena mumbled to herself, her annoyance growing at herself and the situation. “Of course you are. Abs, a body like– well– like that,” she motioned her hand in the air in the alien’s general direction before grabbing the pan and beginning to clean. “Advanced technologies and cultures, survivor of an explosion, brilliant no doubt and adaptable. On top of it she had to be a goddamn poet.”

It was mostly incoherent after that, but Lena did it to hide away from the alien with the honey-colored eyes and the small smile that played at the corner of her lips.

“What is a poet, Lena Luthor?”

“Just Lena.”

“You’re a poet?”

“No, I’m not,” she huffed. “A poet is someone who says or writes beautiful things.”

“Ah, I did that, then?” Kara asked, sipping her water. “Is that why your cheeks are red?”

“No.”

“Your heart did a misstep.”

“That wasn’t why.”

“Why then?”

“Poets speak honestly and don’t ask a lot of real questions,” Lena stated, ending the rabbit hole of questions she suddenly found herself descending. “Just give me five minutes to think.”

“That’s a long time.”

“I’m pretty sure you spent twenty some years in hypersleep. Five minutes isn’t going to kill you.”

Taken aback by the information, Kara opened her mouth but thought better of it. Instead, she decided she needed to think as well.

* * *

Somewhat satiated for the moment, Lena watched the alien look around and touch everything. There was something childlike to her that she wasn’t sure wasn’t entirely due to the fact that everything was new and unexplored. It must have been part of her very DNA, Lena decided as she sipped her coffee and let her brain work on the puzzle at hand.

Kara was beautiful. She had the crest of the House of El and she had the cleft in her chin that signified them on earth, or at least what Lena assumed to be genetic. Her muscles shifted and for a moment, Kara leaned over and winced, holding one hand over an ear, the pain coming back from adjusting to Earth’s atmosphere.

Her cousin, the Man of Steel, the Savior of Metropolis, he must have gone through all of it as a child. Lena wanted to know if it was worse now, or if she would be able to help at all.

But before she could offer anything, Kara was back to looking at something else.

Never before had Albert been so interested in a stranger, than he was in Kara. The cat followed her, sitting close and watching constantly, much closer than normal.

Shortly she’d have to break Kara’s heart and tell her a lot of news that would be hard to put together. And on top of it, she really couldn’t fathom what might come next for the alien.

“This is all very antiquated,” Kara finally muttered, furrowing as she touched the laptop that sat on the table near folders of work. “Is all of Earth like this?”

“Maybe more so,” Lena nodded, straightening her back slightly as she clung to her mug. “Kara, I have to tell you things.”

“It’s more bad news,” she nodded and ran her hands over her neck, itching it sheepishly as she looked at Lena. “My planet– my family, they’re gone. I watched that. But Kal was a baby. You said I’d been asleep, and you knew him. I was put in a pod to protect him, and I failed.”

“He doesn’t need protecting.”

“He does. He won’t even remember his parents.”

“Kara, he’s a grown man with super strength and can fly. He can’t be harmed by earth weapons. He’s a hero to most of us.”

“I have to see him.”

With purpose she walked toward the window, ready to escape, though Lena followed quickly, asking her to slow down and wait. Kara just shook her head and grew more upset. With a tight grip, she crunched the door handle into nothing.

“It’s not safe now,” Lena tried. “What if he doesn’t know who you are?”

“He’ll know.”

“Kara– wait.”

“I’ll find him,” Kara decided, yanking the door with too much force for it to remain on the hinges.

“The last remnant of Krypton that arrived here nearly tore the planet apart. I don’t know how receptive he’ll be.”

“I have to try.”

“My brother won’t stop hunting you. Let me help, Kara.”

“I have to try,” she repeated, setting her jaw. “Thank you, Lena.”

“Why do you have to do this?”

“I failed once, and I can’t fail again.”

In a blink, the alien was gone, and Lena just scanned the sky and wondered what else she should do. Albert meowed and sat down beside the broken door, rubbing his chin against it. Into the night, the alien went in search of family, and Lena prayed her brother was under control.


	3. Chapter 3

For three days and nights, Lena refreshed the news as often as possible, waiting to hear something about the alien that escaped. She kept an eye on Superman blogs and conspiracy twitters, waiting for a glimpse of anything related to the cousin of Metropolis’ hero, and yet came up with nothing. And thus she was doomed to wonder about her.

Of course, Lena busied herself with cleaning up her brother’s mess and putting up a protective wall around her company to bar his hatred from absolutely blowing up what their family spent decades building. She certainly wasn’t about to be the end of the line. If she learned one thing from her father, it was that family didn’t dictate anything, but especially not business. 

It was a lot of work, to manage her brother, her life, the rogue alien, and the business, and so when Friday rolled around, and the rain finally stopped with the storm moving off the coast and finally freeing the lakes from the torrential and everlasting downpour, Lena dropped her bag at the door, turned on some music, and poured herself a glass of wine. A rather well-deserved glass of wine, if you were to ask her.

So she told her assistant to be gentle with the weekend work and emails, and Lena resigned herself to a lot of not doing anything. What most people wouldn’t have ever guessed about her, was that she was a notorious homebody. If she wasn’t forced to go anywhere, she wouldn’t. It grew from a desire to feel at home, and yet never attain it. But she had her own home that she’d lived in for almost three years. It was her place, and now she was addicted to burrowing into it.

There was nothing left for her to do but try to enjoy herself and relax. She dug her free hand, the one without the freshly refilled wine glass, into the soreness of her tight shoulder and neck. Music hummed and she opened the doors and windows to the sunset on the lake and the beautiful view that her penthouse allowed.

In just a few days, her entire life had changed to almost unrecognizable ways. She’d suspected her brother had been involved in weird research methods. She never wanted to believe the extent to which it drove him.

That was how Lena decided to spend her Friday night; digging into whatever files she could find on their company server. It felt nice to dust off some of the dust to her tech brain. She missed doing simple things like hacking and programing. She missed what it meant to have something to do that wasn’t stupid meetings and being the face of a company.

The sun went down, beneath the remnants of the big, fluffy storm clouds, and Lena picked at the delivery the doorman brought up an hour ago. She scrolled through files on her laptop and let Albert knead her legs before settling in a prime spot on her lap.

It was much too late when she finally saw the article, though article might have been too generous of a word. But on a blog and storming through twitter, the image of Superman and another flying person, seen from a pretty good distance and very grainy, made its way into the world.

Lena stared at it and sipped her wine, allowing herself a small smile. A tiny part of her was bothered by it, but more than anything, she felt a certain contentment at the fact that she’d stopped her brother from ruining a moment like that.

She allowed herself a single second to enjoy it before returning to her work.

* * *

There weren’t many nights that Lena made it to her bed to enjoy the luxury of the biggest, softest one she could find in the world. Most of the time, she fell asleep on her desk and somehow woke up to clean clothes and coffee waiting for her, courtesy of her assistant. Often times, she fell asleep on the couch with the glow of a tablet and television keeping her company into the wee hours of the morning.

Thus was the life of a CEO. There was a routine in it, and because of that, Lena was able to keep steady and solid, which was exactly what her company called for from her in the wake of her father and apparently her brother’s new hobbies.

But on rare nights, on those beautiful, quiet, random nights, she made it to the monstrosity of a bed with the comfortable sheets and the clean smell, and she told her assistant to leave her alone for a few extra hours in the morning, and Lena allowed herself a break. It meant sleeping until nine, which for a Luthor was essentially sleeping the day away. It meant being safe and sound, and feeling relatively renewed. It meant, that for the tiniest of moments, she was dead to the world.

But on those nights, Lena restored herself, and she loved it, begrudgingly.

In the bed in the minimalist bedroom, the cat curled up against his owner’s shoulder, satisfied to finally be able to share the bed, instead of having it all to himself. In the quiet that came in the middle of the night in the penthouse condo, a noise went unheard as the sleeping pair snoozed contentedly.

Lena shifted slightly and then woke when she thought she heard another noise. With a purr of complaint, Albert stretched and readjusted, clearly exhausted with his day, while the CEO squinted at the clock beside her bed, making out the faint numbers that told her it was already after four in the morning.

In a second, she yawned and burrowed deeper into the pillow before another noise made her sit up even quicker. The cat complained but tucked back in despite his bedmate’s movements.

Creeping softly, Lena slid open a drawer and quickly pressed her finger to the small safe, which opened a second later for her to grab the gun inside. Heart beating wildly in her chest, Lena steadied herself and followed the noises at the end of the hall. A dim light illuminated her kitchen. The cold of the early morning made gooseflesh appear on her bare thighs, and she tugged at the shirt she was sleeping in, hoping to cover something.

None of it seemed to matter to the cat, who, upon being disturbed, took it upon himself to go in search of a snack, trotting down the hall at twice the speed of his owner. When he disappeared around a corner, Lena heard him meow contentedly and jump onto a counter.

Back pressed against the wall, Lena inhaled and held it before jumping out, gun cocked and trained on a body.

Fear turned to adrenaline which turned to an overwhelming surge of bravery, but in the moments that passed and all of the signals met up in her still sleep-logged brain, all manner of feeling deflated from her body.

Across the island in the kitchen, a newly familiar face stared back at her, cat in one arm, the other hand in a box of cookies. Startled like a deer meeting a semi on a highway in the middle of the night, an alien stared back at Lena.

“Jesus Christ, I almost shot you!” Lena yelled, dropping her guard and clicking the safety on the weapon. “You can’t just keep breaking into my house!”

“I did not break anything,” Kara shook her head quickly. “I promise.”

“That’s not… I don’t mean….” she paused and took another deep breath, meaning it this time. “You scared me.”

“I did not mean to scare you. I was going to say hello but I got so hungry, and you have good food. Except this juice,” she made a face and held up a green health juice. “This is poison, I am sure.”

“It’s healthy.”

“I like these more,” Kara decided, shoving her hand back into the box of cookies, smiling to herself as she crunched.

It was a lot to process, yet again.

Lena shook her head and put her gun down on the counter, still trying to fight away the nerves and the startling that happened, waking her from such a deep, solid sleep. It’d been a week, and she hadn’t expected to see the alien ever again, and yet here she was, in all of her glory, ill-fitting shirt and shorts and all.

“Kara, what are you doing here?”

She earned a shrug, and despite the smile, there was sadness in the alien’s eyes. Kara put the cat and the cookies on the counter and waited nervously before deciding that the truth was all she had left anymore.

“There’s no one left. Just me. Kal-El is not a son of Krypton. He doesn’t understand what it all means, and he doesn’t understand me. I’m just so sad, Lena. I spent the past few days looking for something,” Kara sighed, heavy and sad and lost. “I came back here because I feel okay here.”

Lena knew what it meant to be lost. She understood what the alien was saying, in at least some way, and for some reason she wanted to help and get back the girl who once smiled about something as simple as cookies and crackers.

“He wanted to send me away, to some island with his friends. Warriors. But I don’t like to fight. I like to learn. He doesn’t understand any of it, and it’s–” the edge of the counter broke in her hands.

“You can stay here, if you want. I won’t let my brother–”

“I know.”

“You can trust–”

“I know.”

“I wouldn’t–”

“Lena, I know,” Kara smiled again finally, placing the broken granite down. “I never doubted you. I only regret that I put you in this situation.”

“What are friends for?”

“I’m not sure about Earth, but on Krypton, friends were people you shared a mutual understanding and kinship with outside the bounds of family and blood.”

“We’ll work on that,” Lena decided before giving her guest a reassuring smile.

Kara simply cocked her head and waited for an elaboration that wouldn’t come. It would be a heck of an endeavor, but from one orphan to another, Lena knew she had to take care of Kara, even if that meant hiding her from her own brother.


	4. Chapter 4

It took an hour and a broken sink and bed frame to get Kara into a bed and asleep. Albert was exactly no help, though he did elect to sit in bed against the body that ran hotter than most, absorbing what he could from her while Lena did her best to not lose her mind at the undertaking she had undertaken.

It was the right thing to do, she reminded herself as she shut the door to just a crack and left the alien staring at the ceiling and trying to sleep. Ear plugs were jammed into her ears and noise cancelling headphones were put on top with what she referred to as beautiful sounds that were old orchestra arrangements for some ballets that Lena went to long ago. Still, Kara could hear, but every bit helped.

Lena now took it upon herself to figure out how best to help the strange entity that was now her roommate for the foreseeable future.

As she sat at her table and opened her laptop and pulled out a tablet and also her phone, she began to form a list of things to be done on an old notebook. She tapped her pen against it as everything loaded and she thought over the foreseeable future and what that meant.

Kara would have to play human. She would have to hide in plain sight, and Lena was not sure she was the best person to try to teach someone how to be human. That thought made her chuckle as she began to make a checklist of basic things.

Carefully, she took the time to take a look into what her brother was doing to look for the lost Kryptonian, hoping to stay a step ahead of him and his death brigade. She dug through files while simultaneously messaging Jess and reworking her schedule for the following day.

It was rare for Lena to skip work. In fact, she couldn’t remember ever doing it. So when she told Jess to take a long weekend and reschedule, she got asked by her assistant if that was a joke. It was a fair question, to be true. But this might be the most important thing that Lena ever did with her life, and she knew it. There was no greater risk than to willingly defy her family, and she was doing it with such ease and almost excitement, that she had to take a moment to decipher what it meant– both to be a Luthor, and to be Lena.

Eventually, the cat climbed from its cocoon with the stranger and slithered down the hall until he climbed up on the table, walked across the length of it and sat on Leans’ tablet, demanding attention as best as he could. Absently, Lena rubbed an ear and a cheek and then a chest until he reared and leaned into her hand.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Lena explained to her audience. “She’s lost, and to try to dissect her… It isn’t right. I can’t let it happen.”

Big eyes just looked back at her and a purr rumbled as she rubbed soft fur.

“I know what you’re going to say. I should tell Lex. He’s not going to be happy if he finds out. Plus, how do I help her? Establish a secret identity? Who else can I trust to tell?”

He couldn’t shrug, but essentially, Albert just didn’t care about the worry and words that existed on his human’s mind.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’ve thought it through,” Lena shook her head. She clenched her jaw and pursed her lips as she looked off into the distance that was the dark outside her window. “I will do whatever I can because I’ve been lost before, and no one really helped me. My heart says it’s the right thing to do, and my brain is almost there as well.”

Because of the noise, the cat gave a little chirp and purr, not so much of agreement, but more of contentment with the attention he was receiving with the thoughts coming aloud and distracted hands that needed something to do.

“You like her, don’t you?”

Never before had Lena taken much stock in her cat understanding her. She talked to him and he cuddled with her sometimes, and was relatively cute. They had a great bond as roommates who occasionally shared semi-private things. Nothing too crazy. But the cat that was now a loaf of bread met her eyes and closed them slowly before opening them again and gave her a chirp of agreement.

Not known to be great judges of character, she wasn’t sure how much stock to put in a cat that liked to nibble flower petals.

But Lena smiled to herself and nodded in agreement as she scratched under Albert’s chin and made her decision as if it hadn’t already been made from the very beginning.

* * *

It wasn’t many hours of sleep. Lena realized that the moment she opened her eyes from the noise that came from down the hall. At first, she fought the impulse to fight whatever was happening because she was always alone and no noises should have been coming. But, almost instantly, or at least only a few seconds delayed, she remembered her new roommate.

Outside her window, the day was starting. It wasn’t too late in the morning and she groaned before digging her face into her pillow and giving it a heavy, deep groan of regret for ever being born.

After a few more seconds of debate, she realized she had to see what was happening and if she still had a kitchen. And so she put on a robe and trudged her bare feet down the hall and towards the alarm clock.

“Good morning, Lena,” Kara greeted her warmly, her smile growing wider than anyone had a right to have so early in the morning. “I hope you slept well.”

“I did, thank you,” she returned the smile, though it was quicker, smaller, and less genuine.

Lena moved toward the coffee as she surveyed whatever was happening. There were too many things for her to really understand, but Kara seemed to move with purpose.

“I apologize that I do not know what to make here. Your foods are entirely foreign to me. I’ve been working through taste and guessing,” she explained. “I cannot seem to not be hungry, and I am so sorry for that.”

“No need to apologize. My home is yours.”

“You are very kind.”

“And you seem to be in good spirits despite your situation.”

Lena poured herself a cup of coffee, stirring it with a little leftover milk and some sugar, both of which were already out and being used or had been used or would be, at the very least. She sipped it while she watched something contort Kara’s face. For a moment, she paused the stirring of some sort of batter.

“My heart is broken irreparably,” the alien offered, stilling her work, but refusing to look up at Lena. “My home is gone. My blood is unrecognizable. I am alone. And yet, I am still alive. When those thoughts get to be too much, I remember that I am meant to survive. I owe my world that much.”

The warmth of the coffee mug radiated down her hands and to her arms. Lena stared at Kara for a few seconds after her words paused and she seemed to catch herself.

“I am grateful for your kindness. I won’t pay you back with sadness.”

“You’re allowed to feel it all though,” Lena promised. “I don’t expect you to pretend to be happy.”

“But I am happy,” Kara nodded, resuming her mixing. A little bit of Lena believed her, but the other part, the similar part, it couldn’t. “I’m alive. I’m here. My entire life is restarting and it’s scary, but we continue, right?”

“Right,” she nodded, drawing deep from her coffee cup. “Have you made anything edible yet?”

“No, I don’t believe so,” she smiled. “I’ve been eating the ingredient, but have been unable to make anything complete.”

“It looks like you made a good effort.”

“Thank you,” Kara beamed, oddly proud of her mess because Lena acknowledged that she tried. There was something to be said for sarcasm and praise.

“Why don’t we go out and get food?”

“I was yelled at last time I tried to get food. I did not have money, and no one would understand what I wanted, and that I would trade with them. No one listens here.”

“I have money. And I think we should go shopping so you will blend in a bit better. I’m assuming that’s what you want to do.”

It didn’t take much time to decide, but Kara took it. She slowed her mixing before putting the bowl down and putting her hands on her hips, powerful and much more austere than the moment called for.

“I do. I want to be very human.”

Lena stared at her, beautiful and flawless and brave and strong and full of life and joy and pain, and she swallowed slightly, watching the much too small shirt cling to muscles and the little bit of ink peak from beneath a sliver.

She was salivating and she knew it. There might have been drool in her coffee. But she shook her head and ignored the smile as much as possible.

“We’ll start with food, and then move to clothes, if that’s okay with you?”

“I am yours to mold, Lena Luthor,” Kara nodded.

“I don’t know how human I am.”

“Hopefully more than me.”

Lena chuckled and grinned at the observation. Kara smiled wider at the noise she made when she laughed, oddly excited by the prospect of more of it, of the joy that spread across Lena’s face and the way her nose bunched up.

“This sounds like the blind leading the blind.”

“I don’t think that’s very efficient or safe.”

“I agree. But let’s do it anyway.”

It was the way she sounded resolved and confident that made Kara agree. Lena wiggled her eyebrows and finished her cup of coffee.

* * *

“What seems to be the problem?” Lena asked over her menu.

Slightly antsy and clad in an old sweatshirt that was still a little tight around the shoulders, the Kryptonian flipped the page and surveyed the words, not too sure about what was happening and what to say.

“I don’t know what any of this is. I studied your culture for most of my life in preparation, but I still don’t know what it actually tastes like.”

“You studied us?”

“My parents made me. I think they always knew this was the plan.”

“That more of you would come?”

“Maybe. I’m not sure. But now I’m hungry, and I don’t know what to eat.”

“Do you trust me, Kara?” Lena grinned conspiratorially.

Despite the momentary lapse in her optimistic outlook, the alien sized up the girl sitting across the table and thought about it and liked her smile.

“When you smile like that, it makes me want to say yes ever quicker than normal.”

Lena chuckled slightly. She waved over the waiter and worked on ordering everything on the menu and in varying ways. Gratefully, Kara put down the menu and breathed for the first time since she’d begun reading the words she knew but didn’t inherently know.

“I’m sorry to be causing you so much trouble.”

“It’s not any trouble.”

“It is,” Kara nodded. “I know what you are doing for me. I hope to pay you back one day.”

“You don’t have to. It’s just money.”

“It’s not just that.”

Lena set her jaw and nodded as she sipped her coffee. She didn’t want to meet Kara’s earnest eyes. Those were the worst. They were actually the best, but at that moment, they were the worst thing to imagine seeing because they would make her feel good, and she wasn’t exactly used to such a feeling.

“We don’t have to talk about it. But we should try to figure out what we are going to do with you.”

“I don’t want to go to that island. Both islands,” Kara remembered. “The one I woke up on was bad. But Kal said his friend could keep me safe.”

“Do you know where he wanted to send you?”

“Themyscira.” Lena choked slightly on her coffee. “Do you know it?”

“Not personally. No human has ever been there.”

“He said it’s hidden, and they just train to be warriors, no one else around. But I want to see things and experience this life.”

As if on cue, the waiter arrived with a large selection of breakfast items that made the alien gaze on with amazement. It was a look that Lena hadn’t ever seen on someone else’s face. It was purely Kara, she was discovering– someone who was just very much alive despite so much pain, and that made it all the more special.

“Well, let me share with you one of the best parts of Earth,” Lena decided, hoping to keep the smile. She hadn’t really been someone who cared about making other people happy, but it’d been a weird few weeks. “Breakfast.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“You don’t have to eat it all. There’s more coming.”

“I’m so hungry and it smells so good.”

“Jump in,” Lena offered, picking up a fork and grabbing honeydew from the plate of fruit.

She wasn’t one to share food. She hated the idea of eating off of someone’s plate, but there was so much that it just made sense to sample with Kara. Lena wasn’t one for breakfast, but she could tell Kara was already, though that could have just been food in general.

Somewhere between the eggs and orange juice and bacon, Kara discovered waffles and french toast, which were enjoyed at first, and then inhaled when Lena introduced syrup into the mix.

“I think you have a sweet tooth,” Lena grinned as she nibbled on a piece of toast.

“This is absolutely fantastic!”

“I’ll start a list of foods you like.”

“I liked all of them.”

“I’ll just put ‘breakfast,’ then.”

Kara couldn’t answer. She began to pick at another few plates that were delivered as a few were taken away. All Lena could do was smile and finish her coffee before waving for the check, because surely that had to be enough to stave off the hunger pangs, at least for a little while, for the Kryptonian.

* * *

“This might be my least favorite part,” Kara complained gently as she tilted up her chin and tugged at the collar that slightly restricted her throat.

Tentatively, she stretched her hands out and wiggled slightly at the ill-fitting clothes and watched her movements in the mirror as Lena held her chin in her hand and surveyed with a knowledgeable eye, slowly walking around the newest outfit.

“You can’t wear your… other clothes,” Lena sighed. “But I want you to be comfortable.”

“Where would I wear this?”

Hands flapped against her thighs as Kara shifted and tugged again. The shirt made it impossible to move her legs. The shirt was tight and low cut and it was something Lena would have in her closet; something Kara could wear if she were going to be Lena shadow.

“Well I’ll have to go back to work soon, and I think you should come with me. At least for a little while.”

“I can have a job?”

“Why don’t we figure out how to get you adjusted before we get a career path lined up for you, okay?”

“Fine. But I don’t like this–” As Kara said the words, she shifted and flexed her shoulders, shredding the seams of the shirt. “Sorry.”

Sheepishly, she gulped and started to unbutton.

“That’s okay. We’ll get the size right soon,” Lena nodded. “Excuse me, can we have maybe some pants? And larger shirts.”

The saleswoman nodded, surveying the damage already done to multiple outfits on the floor. But Lena didn’t notice the look of disapproval. Instead, she gulped and caught a shirtless Kara in the mirror, running her hand up her ribs and adjusting her new bra. She shifted and surveyed it in the mirror herself, enjoying it slightly.

Cheeks and chest on fire, Lena turned around quickly, pretending to sift through one of the racks of clothes that she’d selected. She counted to ten and pulled out a simple button up. She turned back to find a newly pantless Kryptonian standing in the mirror.

It was an absolute crime to put clothes on her, to be honest, Lena decided. But dear God, she absolutely had to soon, because it was going to be impossible to live if she couldn’t figure out how to breathe.

“Try this,” Lena offered. She turned and selected a pair of pants from the girl. “And these.”

“I already like these,” Kara nodded as she slipped her feet in and pulled up the legs. She moved around before buttoning them.

The problem was, she had abs and an ass and Lena was gay, though she was trying her absolute hardest not to look. The only thing she could really hope for was that her face didn’t depict the absolute panic she was in, berating herself for having an open jaw, for losing herself in staring at the not clothes.

“How do I look?” Kara smiled, turning around finally arms stretched as she tested the clothes. “I feel good.”

“You look great,” Lena offered weakly before furrowing and clearing her throat. “I mean. You look very nice.”

“Is this normal clothes for your people?”

“Yes. For the most part. People have different styles.”

“We just all had the same thing,” Kara shrugged.

Lena took a few steps closer and surveyed. She reached up and buttoned another button on the shirt, doing her best to will her fingers stead and her eyes to stay away from Kara’s lips. They were turned into a smile and her skin had this lingering smell of sunshine and what she could only describe as chamomile, though Lena knew she didn’t own anything that smelled like that. She wasn’t sure if that was what Kryptonians smelled like or just Kara, but she knew which answer she preferred.

She took a second and smoothed the fabric over Kara’s broad shoulders before tucking in the shirt for her.

Kara hovered close, her eyes not leaving Lena’s face as she did it, oddly distracted with how purposeful and focused those green eyes could become. She watched Lena take a step back and survey her work. She could hear her heartbeat hammering in her chest and she wondered why exactly.

“We’ll take a dozen or so of these, various colors, or anything similar. Please take some liberties, but this is what we’re looking for,” the CEO directed. “And the same for the pants. I want two of the boots, black and brown, two of the sneakers, black and white–”

“And red,” Kara smiled happily. “I liked the red ones.”

“And red,” Lena nodded, sharing her grin. “Five of the bras and a few similar but with variety. A month’s worth of the underwear, those socks, and a few dress shoes. When you send them over, please organize them into outfits or some manner like that.”

The girls took notes, following Lena as she moved around the private shopping area.

“Those sweaters, I’d like to have a few of those. You liked those, right?” Kara just nodded. “I liked the grey blazer and the green one. The red, yellow, white, and blue dresses. And,” she paused, all movements stopping once they caught up to her.

Lena looked at another table with items laid out on it. She went from business to all blush in a manner of seconds. She looked back at Kara who simply moved around in her new pants in a rather silly way, earning a smile.

“These ties,” Lena pointed at a few, carefully pulling them aside.

“Would you like us to pull a few items as they come in?”

“Yes, of course. You have my credit card number,” she nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d also like some more casual clothes as well, same measurements. Jeans, sweaters, some pyjamas, things like that.”

“Yes ma’am,” the manager nodded. “Are those… would the miss like to wear that outfit out?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Do I really look okay?” Kara fret, not really listening to the tirade and thousands of dollars Lena just spent in less than five minutes.

The room dissipated as the girl’s went to work wrapping up items and preparing the delivery to be pulled. Lena took a deep breath and looked at Kara once again.

“You look perfectly human and even for one of them, absolutely stunning.”

There was a little bit of blush to the tips of Kara’s ear, but she just smiled until dimples appeared.

“Thank you.”

“Though, I do have one more thing to add,” Lena grinned as she paused near some accessories.

Curiously, Kara followed and waited until Lena slid some glasses onto her face.

“Perfect.”


	5. Chapter 5

Deep in the island, the construction tape was strung all over the still-damaged parts of the research facilities. Much had already been repaired, but the rest was either too broken or took much longer. But the entire base was altered irrevocably in a way other than physically. It still bore the scars of the powerful alien escaping, and it stung with the realization of just how overwhelming and otherworldly she was.

The floor was patched, the walls were reinforced, the data was collected and fragmented videos were strung together to put a picture of the newest alien on Lex Luthor’s desk. Incessantly, he poured over the files, simultaneously marvelling and growing more and more upset with how overwhelming this threat was. He already knew Superman, studied his power and how to contain him, and though he hadn’t been able to yet, he felt an edge. This new alien though, she seemed more powerful with the unfortunate benefit of not loving humanity, as the other Kryptonian continually vowed.

In the dimly lit office near the top of the research labs, the video of the chaos of the alien waking replayed once again as Lex scoured the internet for sightings. His team was sworn to absolute secrecy, and no one mentioned the escape, but it changed the entire feeling. Beneath the normal days, an undercurrent, a hum of fear was stoked.

Alone and isolated, the owner and scientist furrowed, the cloudy features of his angular face barely moved as eyes darted back and forth, taking everything in as quickly as possible. Not much else occupied his mind lately, much to his sister’s dismay. While she still continually begged him to participate in the business she wasn’t supposed to be running. Emails piled up, phone calls were ignored, and still he sat there, day after day, obsessively plotting.

Deep in the island, in the middle of the night, Lex Luthor ignored another call from his sister, and he began to search through the newest research results from his team, preparing for the day he finally found the alien that got away. Plans were made, and he was preparing to finally rid the earth of all problems.

The phone buzzed once again, and he silenced it by throwing it against the wall in his office so that it crashed,shattering into a bunch of smaller pieces. He didn’t move another muscle, just the minimum required for that task, and back again he was on his computer.

If he’d answered the phone, he would have heard the slight edge in his sister’s voice, the annoyance at his avoiding her, at the fact that she was running everything, and he was draining resources in a way that was hard to justify, that she wanted to hear how her battery was doing in long-term and rigorous testing.

But Lex didn’t hear any of that. Instead, he poured through the rest of the footage once again, and he wrote down notes of ideas of things to kill the powerful aliens he viewed as the greatest threat to humanity, and he slowly but surely lost much of his own.

XXXXXXXXXX

“I’m so excited! This is going to be great!” Kara cheered eagerly.

The entire car trip into work, wide eyes stared at all of the city, enjoying the dim kind of dawn that was stretched and pulled apart in winter into nothing more than pale sunlight and wool clouds. It was going to be a cloudy day, but it did nothing to deter Kara from enjoying the freedom of finally accompanying Lena into work.

It took a few days of Lena having a fake illness and balking her assistant’s attempts to come over and bring supplies. It took a few days of figuring out what to do with Kara, and how to make it all work. It was a few days of Lena working very hard to not think about the new alien girl with the pretty smile and sad eyes. It was a few days of experiencing everything for the first time through a stranger’s eyes.

“It’s going to be boring, I can assure you. My job isn’t exciting.”

“We had purpose and jobs on Krypton,” Kara explained. “I know how jobs work.”

“What was yours?”

“I was a… I think the word is prostitute?”

“Excuse me?” Lena choked on her tea, nearly spilling on her shirt. She bolted at the word and wasn’t sure how to recover.

“You know, I helped with studying, and I worked with the younger ones to help them understand things,” Kara furrowed. “Is that the wrong word? Is it profiteer? Profiler?”

“Professor.”

“Yes,” she smiled and nodded, happy to resume looking at the tall buildings and all of the glass and metal that occasionally reminded her of her home. “I was a professor.”

From the other side of the car, Lena thought about the words and about the idea that Kara was a prostitute and that was distracting enough. She didn’t look at the pretty girl with the pressed slacks and button-up shirt. She couldn’t.

“What did you teach?”

“History and Sciences.”

“History of what?”

“My people,” Kara smiled sadly before catching herself. “And then I taught the young ones the history of our sciences.”

“That sounds like a noble life.”

“It was fun, and I loved it.”

The car finally slowed in front of Lena’s building, and she prepared for what her day was about to turn into. Hiding an alien in plain sight seemed like the best course of action, which was kind of crazy, but then again, her brother was actually insane, and at this point, beating crazy with crazy seemed like the best bet.

“Do you mind that your life has led you here now?” Lena asked, concerned about someone else’s happiness, which was oddly foreign for her.

“I don’t know. I can’t think about it all too much. Just today. I can live today.”

“And today you’re okay.”

“Today I’m okay.”

The driver made his way around to open the door, and Lena smiled as she gave Kara’s hand a squeeze, assuring her yet again that things would be okay, though she wasn’t sure how. Kara grinned at the contact, the tips of her ears going a bit pink.

“I’ll see you at six, Ms. Luthor,” the driver explained as she opened the door.

“Shall we?”

XXXXXXXXXX

The normal morning for Jess consisted of pre-arranging her boss’ schedule, returning emails that accumulated in the night, gathering reports, sorting internal mail, and generally running the tone of the day. Most mornings were boring in that they were quiet, starting with a stillness before the rest of the world woke up. Jess arrived first, turning on the lights to the top floor, stacking the reports just how her boss liked, surveying the multiple schedules.

For some reason, it wasn’t like most mornings.

The coffee shop was out of her favorite flavor and skim milk. The weather was stuck between warm and muggy, which did weird things to her hair. The traffic was deceptively heavy. The train was uncharacteristically full for so early in the morning. The security guard wasn’t the usual guy. A series of small irregularities snuck up on the secretary in a way that she refused to notice until it was much too late.

The elevator dinged at exactly five after nine, and Jess stood and reached for her schedule book and the coffee she prepared for her boss just a few minutes before, a safeguard against the complaints that were inevitably about to occur.

“Good morning, Ms. Luthor. How are you?”

Without really looking, Jess met Lena’s eyes and greeted her. It took a few moments for her to realize there was another body in the elevator. A beautiful body. A body attached to a pretty face, with an angular jaw and warm, melt-in-the-sun eyes.

“Um, this is my… this is an intern. Hand-selected.”

“Hand-selected?”

“Yes, hand-selected,” Lena nodded after looking at Kara for confirmation. “It’s complicated.”

“Hi. I’m Kara,” the alien grinned, over-joyed and much too awake for so early in the morning.

“Hand-selected after you took off for 2 days?” The secretary asked, somewhat ignoring the peppy newcomer.

“Yes. Those are unrelated facts.”

“Are they?”

The trio moved toward Lena’s office as she attempted to dodge the questions and start her day as normally as she could. There was really no hope of that with her assistant and the pretty girl that was now her shadow– a gorgeous, beautiful shadow who had dimples and a jaw she wanted to cut her tongue on–

“What?” Lena furrowed and cleared her throat as she tugged at the collar around her throat, her secretary looking at her for an answer expectantly.

“You have a full day today. Perhaps I can find something for your intern to do?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. That would be… yes. Kara, you have a knack for sciences, why don’t we have Jess set you up in the archive department. You can see what we’ve given up on.”

“Just a step above the mail room.”

“The mail room sounds like fun.”

“Then go to the mailroom,” the CEO shook her head. “Don’t go far, please.”

“Yes ma’am,” Kara fake saluted and looked expectantly at the tiny secretary who came up to just above her elbow.

Jess looked at her boss, waiting to see the truth in the present situation. She just got avoiding eyes and a stern glance. She smiled and nodded before leaving the office.

With a deep breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, Lena flopped into her chair and braced her head in her hands before shaking it against herself. She was going to lose her mind before the day was over, she was certain.

XXXXXXXXXX

“Hi, I’m Kara. I’m from Metropolis. I am a PhD student interning here for the foreseeable future. I like movies and I love ice cream and donuts. I recently discovered that of all the genders on this planet, I am mostly attracted to one but also like one person. The sun is a beautiful star, and I think sunset is superior to sunrise. My favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry or peanut butter surprise. My favorite cereal is Lucky Charms.”

The woman at the counter to the Archives floor stared at the newcomer and finally dropped her hand after shaking it vigorously. Just three years from retirement, Norah McLaughlin, the intrepid organizer of all things file related, the pursuer of patents, the copyright expert, the organizer of it all, the keeper of the history, stood at her desk and wondered what just walked through her door.

The perky intern waited for her to answer, smiling happily and oblivious to what all of that energy felt like on the receiving end.

“Ms. Luthor said that you have access to all of the discarded projects, and I would like to start looking at them. I have extensive training in the fields of what you might call astro-chemistry, physics, and a baseline, though probably above average, foray into biomedical studies on a number of…um, species.”

With an adjustment of her glasses, the intern smiled again after her description.

“I will leave you both to that, then,” Jess nodded. “If you need anything, please let me know.”

“Sure. Thank you, Jess.”

“Good luck, Ms. McLaughlin.”

The administrator remained standing there, suddenly confused as to how her day just changed from its normal, standard routine, to the whirlwind of being in charge of Lena Luthor’s personal intern.

“Where–where would you like to start?”

“I guess at the beginning,” Kara nodded, buzzing with excitement.

XXXXXXXXXX

At 1:48pm, Lena officially knew she was in trouble.

She knew it about a week beforehand when a soggy alien appeared and her brother siphoned millions into a fund to hunt and prepare for the inevitable attack, though she couldn’t particularly figure out what kind of trouble it actually was going to be. There were a handful of options, of course. The plan would implode, she wouldn’t have a plan, she wouldn’t be able to outwit her brother, or a million other ways it could go sideways.

But for a few hours, Lena allowed herself a tiny ray of hope where she got some work done and didn’t spend every moment worrying. That was almost a complete lie. She spent every other moment worrying.

“Ms. Luthor, there’s been an… incident,” Jess interrupted as Lena read over a few reports. “An incident relating to your new… intern.”

Immediately, Lena perked up at the mention of Kara. She tried to hide it with annoyance but the act of caring and worrying, they came out immediately. Jess saw it and her worst fears were confirmed.

The secretary took a seat immediately, hurrying around the chairs in front of Lena’s desk and sitting on the very edge, ready to speak quickly, and to some degree, well outside of her own area of expertise and beyond her job description.

“What happened?” Lena sighed and put down her folder.

“There seemed to be a mix up with a research lab and an old patent for flexible solar paneling sensors. There was a small fire, and a large complaint lodged by the former researcher,” she explained, looking at her notes to follow the chain of events.

Lena shook her head and clenched her jaw.

“Ms. Luthor… I don’t mean to speak out of turn–”

“But you’re going to?”

“In some weird way, I consider you more than my boss. I don’t know if friend is the right term, but I respect you,” Jess continued, softening the CEO slightly against a reproach. With Lena’s slight agreement, she felt reinvigorated. “Whatever you do in your free time is your business, but I think people are going to start to talk about your intern.”

“Oh?”

Lena felt her spine stiffen as she placed both her palms on the desk and straightened at the remark, hoping to play it off.

“I, for one, am very happy.”

“Okay…”

“And I’m sure others will be upset about it, and I can see where the legal and maybe financial backlash will come in, which is why I have to say something.”

All of the blood in her body pooled at her fingertips, or so it felt. If Jess knew, if everyone knew that she, the Luthor of the alien-hating Luthors, was harboring an alien, and a dangerous one at that, the very blood of the sworn enemy of her own blood… it was a matter of time before her brother’s retribution was paid in full.

“I’ve done a little research, and there are already whispers of this on the internet.”

“Online? Since when?” Lena balked. “Show me!”

There was an instant of hesitation before her boss’ expectant hand pushed her to handing over her tablet with the bookmarked sites ready for her perusal.

“I think Kara is a wonderful person for you to spend time with, and I like that you’ve been out of the office like a normal human. But perhaps finding your girlfriend a job at the company wasn’t the best idea–”

The words faded off as Lena sputtered out an echo of the word ‘girlfriend.’ She felt the relief wash over her instantly as she sank into her chair and looked down at the screen.

The first article was a picture of the CEO and a stranger gazing intently at each other during a rather large brunch. The speculation was loose but enough to generate clicks. The next was an eyewitness account of Lena dressing her plaything, according to the headline, and spending thousands outfitting her in designer threads.

The relief was like a drug, and Lena blushed as she saw the paparazzi pictures of the two of them, and to their credit, they did look somewhat clandestine. It was the work of a skilled lens though, she told herself, and nothing more.

She froze at the image of the two of them in the park, ice cream cones in hand, herself laughing, genuinely laughing, for the first time in a long time. Lena wasn’t sure she ever saw a picture of herself in which she looked truly happy. But there she was, pressed alarmingly close to Kara, and with a beautiful girl who smiled back at her eagerly. Jess was still talking, but it didn’t matter for exactly sixteen seconds.

The new realization that Lena was now the subject of the gossip columns and had a supposed girlfriend was a new level of frightening, and she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t rather have her brother attempting to blow up her office.

“I’m sorry I put you in this position, Jess,” she offered. “I shouldn’t have done that to the company.”

“It might have been okay if she hadn’t actually attempted to work on a project.”

“A small fire?”

“Very small. Maybe six offices are damaged. Three totaled.”

Lena shook her head and leaned back in her chair again before digging her fingertips into the corners of her eyes.

“I suppose I should take my girlfriend home for the evening then.”

“Should we expect her back in the morning?” Jess asked as she stood.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Is there anything I can do for you, Ms. Luthor?”

“Email me all of the information on our non-profits relating to education.”

Lena grabbed her bag and shoved a few things into it before making her way to the door in record time. She paused before opening it.

“Did she figure out the failed project?”

For a few seconds Jess paused and shook her hand with the knowledge.

“They think so. Just a few things to continue testing before results are available for you to look over.”

The CEO smiled slightly before turning the knob.

“Have a good night, Jess.”

“You as well, Ms. Luthor.”

Guilty and nervous, Kara sat in the chair by the elevator and brightened slightly at the sight of Lena leaving her office.

“I should apologize. I didn’t account for differences in atmosph–”

“You figured out how to adapt solar receptors to be extra effective while simultaneously being more malleable and even integratabtle into existing structures.”

“Um, yes?”

“I need you to tell me everything,” Lena grinned and held out her hand. “And then I think we should discuss dating.”


End file.
